The Girl in Room 201
by BridgetoNowhere
Summary: A month after her father's death, Lyza is sectioned in a Psychiatric hospital for Disturbed young ladies, she refuses to co-operate or interact until she meets her neighbour,Hermione,the acclaimed lunatic who believes in magic. After befriending her neighbour, Lyza comes to believe that Hermione might not be so crazy after all. AU
1. Greymount Hospital

"I don't want to go," I whine, "Please, turn around! You can't make me do this!"

But it doesn't matter how much I scream or cry or kick my Mom's chair, she's not changing her mind. She has locked the car doors so I can't escape and brought my uncle just in case I needed to be restrained.

"Mom, please bring me home. I'm fine, I'm better."

"No,no,no, I can't, I won't, the doctor said this would work, I'm running out of answers Lyza," Mom sighs. "Besides, it won't be for that long, if you try really hard, you'll be out of there before you know it."

"It's over four hundred miles away Mom! I feel like you're sending me as far away as you can afford!"

This really gets her, she snaps her head back at me. "You think I want to send my only child away? You think this hasn't been keeping me awake for the past month? Lyza, I just want you to get better. Ever since we lost your dad, it's like I've lost you too. You don't talk , or eat, you just go around and do horrible things to yourself, you scream at anybody who comes near you! I just want you back Lyza. The doctor said this place is one of the best, they'll make you better."

I watch her turn back around and inhale deeply. I know she doesn't need this, especially after losing her husband just over a month ago but I can't help it, I watched my father get crushed to death by a drunken driver in a hit and run just meters away from our home. She doesn't even try to understand what I've been through. She doesn't know what's going through my head. Nobody does. There are images and thoughts I just can't get rid of. Right now, being alive is just a burden.

She turns on the air conditioning and fixes her eyes on the road, I know there's no way of changing her mind now. I've lost my case, so I make no attempt to communicate with either my mother or my uncle for the rest of the journey. Along the way, they ask me if I want to stop for a restroom break or to get something to eat but I just keep staring out my window, trying to shut everything out.

After what seems like an endless dusty road, my uncle turns the car into some hidden driveway barely noticeable among all the trees on right side of the road. The driveway is long, my guess is that it stops people from escaping. He finally stalls the car outside the tallest and gloomiest concrete building I've ever seen. It's once white walls are now a dull grey that surely couldn't help cure depression and the windows seemed to be barred on the inside. Prisons have been built that are more friendly than this five floor hospital.

It's late, about nine o clock so the everything around me is dark,n I couldn't see anything out the window while we were driving I'm sure my mother planned this out so I wouldn't be able to find my way home.

"Come on Lyza," Mom says, she's already out of the car and taking off my seatbelt, she pulls me out of the car while my uncle is left to collect my things from the trunk.

Mom pulls me by the wrist inside to the reception with peeling white walls and green tiled floor. A woman in a white uniform is sitting behind a computer staring at me as Mom pulls me over.

"Hi," Mom says nervously, fidgeting with her hair as she always does when she's nervous. "This is, uh, my daughter." She begins to stammer. "Lyza Holbrook."

"Welcome to Greymount Hospital,"the woman says tonelessly, she has prematurely grey hair pulled back in a tight bun and bad skin which looks like a result of a lifetime smoking. Like everything in this place, she is dull and gloomy. "I'll just page Dr. Fischer."

"No need Maura," a voice calls coming down the stairs. A brown haired woman in a white coat appears on the second last steps. She smiles at us. "You must be the Holbrooks?" She asks in what I'm guessing is some sort of European doctors.

"Yes," Mom whispers. "This is Lyza."

The doctor approaches us, I feel horribly uncomfortable. I start to panic. "Mom, Mom," I gasp. "Please."

"Lyza, please," Mom snaps.

"I want to go home, I need to get out of here!" I scream. The woman stops some meters away from me.

"Lyza stop this please," Mom whispers, trying to hold back tears.

"Lyza, can you please listen to me?" The doctor asks in a calming tone. I don't look her in the eye. I want to grab onto my mother and hide behind her like I did when I was a child, but I can't do that now, she wants to get rid of me, she just wants to leave this prison with me stuck safely inside, away from society.

"Lyza, my name is Dr. Elena Fischer," She speaks. "I'm going to be your ward doctor while you're here."

"You're another psychiatrist," I hiss. "You just want to lock me up. You think I'm disturbed and crazy."

"No Lyza, I'm here to help you, I want to make you better again, don't you want to feel better again?"

"You can't do anything to make me better," I mumble.

"Lyza, I promise I will do all I can to make you better, but it will only be possible if you co-operate with me."

"Please Lyza," Mom sobs. "Please do it for me, for yourself, for Dad?"

This sets me off, I push my mother away from me and start screaming. I try to find an escape, pushing over anything in my way, my mind is filled with pictures of my father pushing me to the curb as he's crushed to death, blood splattering everywhere. I hear voices shouting from behind but I can't make out the words.

I'm panting , desperate for a way to escape but my vision is blurred and busy from all this panicky breathing. All I can hear is my name being repeated in different tones of voices until something or somebody grabs of hold of me, I feel something sharp stick into the side of my neck and before I can scream I feel myself fall to the floor, the last thing I hear is my mother's voice screaming loud above everyone else. "Lyza! I'm sorry!" and the world fades away.

* * *

I wake up feeling light headed in a room with bright walls and bright lights. I'm lying on some sort of foam bed which raised from the floor. "Lyza, how are you feeling?" A soft voice asks, I have to blink a few times to adjust my eyesight and I see standing over me. I quickly sit up and crawl back to the headboard of the bed so I'm as far away from her as I can be at this time, my legs feel numb, I don't think I could walk if i tried, never mind run.

"You sedated me," I hiss.

"Only to stop you from getting hurt Lyza, you had already cut yourself on the glass of the vase," She says nodding to my bandaged arm, I look at in surprise I didn't even realize I had cut my arm or felt the pain.

"Where's my mom?" I demand. "I want to see her."

The doctor frowns. "Lyza, your mother thought it would be best to leave before you woke up, she didn't want you to get upset at her departure."

"Bitch," I mutter.

"Now Lyza you can't use that language about your mother, she only wants you to get better."

"So she stuck me in this prison?"

"Lyza I can assure you that Greymount is one of the best psychiatric hospitals for young people worldwide."

"I doubt that, nobody can find it," I mumble.

"We believe that it's better that you get better in a relaxed and protected environment away from all the stress of day to day life."

"How long are you keeping me locked up?" I growl.

The doctor just smiles gently. "Please Lyza you must understand we want to make you better and the minute we know you're better we'll send you home."

I just curl up and stare at my feet. Do I even have a home now? My mother seemed so keen to get rid of me.

"Now you must be exhausted Lyza, why don't I show you to your room and you can get some sleep?"

I really don't want to follow her but I'm so tired that I just want to find a bed and sleep for an eternity. I'm picturing a small white room with a bed that I'll be strapped to until morning. She leads me down a corridor of doors and stops at a door 202, she opens it and to my surprise the room has bright blue walls and a normal looking bed, there is a table beside the bed and a closet in one corner and a door in the other corner which leads to a bathroom. There is a small but barred window to the right of the bed with a plastic jug of synthetic flowers on the windowsill.

"This will be your bedroom while you're staying here Lyza, you are free to personalize but if you do one of the ward nurses must inspect it, you have your own room and rest room but there is a communal area for all patient on this floor , which is just five of you presently, down the corridor and on your right. Should you need to call me or any of the ward staff there is a pager on your bedside table. You will be called at 8 a.m for breakfast, and you have your first session with me at 9. Don't worry everything will be explained to you tomorrow. You should get some rest now." The doctor watches me inspect the soft blue covers of the bed before I sit down on it.

"Your things have already been delivered," she says pointing to my bags which are beside the closet. "Are you comfortable Lyza? Can I get you anything?"

I don't answer her because I only answer important questions and surely it is obvious that I am not and never will be comfortable here. I just sit in silence wondering how long she's going to stay here. The silence is interrupted by the sound of glass smashing and screaming from the adjacent room.

"Let me out!" A shrill voice cries and there is banging on the walls.

Fischer frowns, "That would be your neighbour, Hermione, I must attend to her. Don't worry about her, she's just a bit hysterical today. Goodnight Lyza."

She closes the door behind her and I hear her enter the room next door to me. I lie down on my bed, the girl next door to me is screaming at the top of her lungs, Hermione, what an odd name, it sounds British or something. I turn off the light but thanks to Hermione's screams and crying I don't catch a minute of sleep all night.


	2. Dr Fischer

**A/N : **Since everybody else is doing it; DISCLAIMER : I do not own the Harry Potter Franchise or any of it's characters but I do own this story and all my own characters.

* * *

There's a knock on my door. "Time to get up," a voice shouts from outside. I close my eyes and turn over in my bed but the door opens and a nurse stands there impatiently. "Get up, you must be in the communal area in ten minutes. is down there waiting to see you. Leave your door open as you exit."

I groan and force myself out of bed, still wearing yesterdays clothes. I rummage through my things and grab the first black items of clothing I find, a long sleeved top and sweat pants. I've only worn black since that night, it suits my mood. I always need to cover my skin, to hide the scars which run up my thighs and wrists. I don't bother with my hair or make up, none of that matters to me.

I slowly open my door and walk out into the bright corridor, I notice that the other doors on the floor are all open except one, Room 201. The screaming girl's room. I slowly walk down to the corridor, the only reason I'm co-operating is that it might get me out of here, I really can't anger Dr. Fischer when she's my key to escaping this hell.

I turn right and find myself in the communal area, it has bright pink walls and blue sofas at one end and a small kitchen with a large table that seats about twelve people, even though the doctor told me there's only five on this floor. There's a television and bookshelves by the sofas and all sorts of utensils in the kitchen. There stands Dr. Fischer, she looks as if she's been waiting for me, her lips part into a broad smile. Also in the kitchen are two stern looking nurses and three other girls about my age. They all turn around and look at me. The three of them are equally apart, they look at me then look at each other, there's one with peroxide blonde, shoulder length hair tied up in a red ribbon which matches her red lipstick, apart from that she doesn't wear any makeup, then there's a black haired girl who appears to have a permanent scowl on her face, she has visible scars on the side of her forehead and looks like she hasn't eaten in months. The last girl has dyed cherry red hair, she's petite but isn't as thin as the other two, she's just normal sized.

"Lyza, nice to see you, I hope you slept well," Dr. Fischer greets me with a smile I don't return.

"Bullshit Doc, you know that nobody could sleep with that crackpot's screaming last night," The blonde one sneers, with her feet up on the table.

"Lucy, don't call her that, nobody is better than anybody else here, you're all here for the same reason, to get better. Now take your feet off the table."

"Lyza this is Lucy, Corrie and Katrina, they're also living on this floor, you'll meet Hermione when she gets up," The doctor says.

"We live on the second floor because that's where they keep the most screwed up," Katrina grins.

"Ok Katrina," Fischer frowns. "That's not true. You're on this floor because this is my floor and I want to help you girls."

"Some help, we've all been here at least two years, Corrie's been here five," Lucy grins at me. The black haired girl just looks at her and scowls. "If you think you're getting out of here soon, you're wrong."

I feel my heart racing and panic building up in my chest. "Lucy!" Fischer snaps. "Stop that!"

"I need to go," I whisper, ready to run. I can't be here that long.

"No you don't, everything's fine," The doctor says in her calming tone. " Lyza, why don't you come to my office now?"

I freeze, I don't want to go to her office, but I surely don't want to stay here either. "No," I whisper.

"Lyza please," The doctor asks as she puts her hand on my shoulder. I scream as she makes contact with me and shake her off. "Leave me alone!" I cry. I push her away and run back towards my room, I look over my shoulder , there's two nurses chasing after me and Katrina and Lucy ave come out of the communal area to watch.

I'm so preoccupied looking at what's behind me that I don't even see the brown haired girl walking towards me. I crash into her and fall to the floor. She stares down at me with a strange look on her face. "Oh look," I can hear Lucy sneer, "She's met the lunatic."

"I'm not crazy!" The brown haired girl shouts and runs into her room.

* * *

Before I can move, the two nurses grab me , I start crying hysterically and try to shake them off but I can't. Their combined grip is tight. Fischer has come to me, she kneels down so that she is at level eye contact. "Lyza, it's ok Honey, you just come with me, you don't have to talk, we can just sit if you want."

I don't have an option anyway, the nurses lead me to Fischer's office, it is a big room with green walls with a mahogany desk and chairs on one side and brown sofas at the other, there's three bookshelves adjacent to each other that are filled with books.

"Come on, you can sit on the sofa," She tells me pointing to the two seater. I look at her with worry, I don't want her to sit down beside me. "Don't worry, I'll sit on this one over here."

I sit down carefully. "Ok Lyza, I have your reports from your psychiatrist back home, he wrote down that you have been having anxiety attacks. He also said you were self harming, refusing to eat or making yourself sick and shutting yourself in your room. He said these are all resulting from your post traumatic stress disorder."

He only left out the insomnia and screaming.

"Do you want to talk about why you do these things? Or how it makes you feel? How you feel in general?"

I shake my head. "You're a stranger," I say blankly.

"Ok well if it makes you feel more comfortable, my name is Elena Fischer, I am thirty seven years old, I came to work in Greymount five years ago, I trained in America but I am from Germany."

I frown at her. "The car was German. It was a Mercedes!"

Her mouth forms an "O", "The car that killed your father?"

I bury my face in one of her cushions and start crying again. "Oh Lyza, I'm sorry, let's talk about something else? Why don't I tell you about how things will work in Greymount."

She takes my silence as a yes. "Well you've met the other girls, I am working with all of you to get better, you all have some similar disorders but none of you are the same. We have group sessions everyday at twelve thirty, before lunch, you don't need to talk but I hope that someday you will feel comfortable enough to contribute to the session. You don't have to do anything you're not comfortable with, but Lyza you need to overcome your fears eventually, now I don't want to make you uncomfortable but I think you'd prefer to know that the nurses are going to be taking note of how you behave here, how you interact with the other girls , what you eat, etc., this is so we can record how you progress."

"The other girls, they've been here forever," I frown.

"Oh Lucy, you must know about Lucy , she is a pathological liar, she was sectioned because of her pyromania, she also suffers from bipolar disorder, which has lead to bullimia and self harm she's had it rough. You can't always believe what she says."

"Was that a lie she told me?" I ask.

"Well, no, but Lyza, Lucy is still here because she didn't try to get better for her whole first year here and then she managed to influence Katrina to do the same, Katrina suffered from many manic episodes before she was sectioned, she was clarified insane and suffers from bi-polar disorder like Lucy. Corrie is not insane but she is severly depressed, she suffers from Post traumatic stress disorder as well as antisocial personality disorder, she self harms like the other two girls. The reason that Corrie is still here after all these because of her reluctance to communicate, Lucy and Katrina are the only people who can get through to her."

"What about Hermione?"

"Ah well Hermione Granger is a special case, she denies it but she's been diagnosed as schizophrenic and in simple terms "crazy", all the girls on this floor have suffered from manic episodes but Hermione has by far suffered the most. She has these thoughts or ideas in her head that she refuses to let go of. I don't want to worry you too much about her, some of her previous doctors believe she is pathological liar too but I want to investigate further into it. She has been clarified insane but I took her under my wing because I am sure I can make her better."

"So how long will I be here?"

"That all depends on how you co-operate." She replies. I frown, I don't like the term "Co-operate" , I like doing everything my own way.

"I want to go now," I say. "I don't feel like talking anymore."

"That's ok, you've done great, you can go to the communal area and get breakfast now." She tells me, it seems like my Mom forgot to tell her I don't eat, but this isn't a suggestion, this is an order.

"Elizabeth," she calls and a nurse appears in the doorway. "Take Lyza to the communal area, she missed breakfast." I stand up before the middle aged black haired nurse can touch me , I keep at least ten steps ahead of her as we walk.

Finally I reach the communal area, but I'm not alone, there's a nurse glaring at the trembling girl at the table, it appears Hermione has missed breakfast too.

* * *

A/N : ok so I know that it hasn't really featured Hermione yet but I promise it will in the next chapters. Thanks for reading, I'd really appreciate any reviews or suggestions , I want people's opinions on this.


	3. The Girl Who Believes in Magic

The nurse pulls out a chair for me and points for me to sit down, the brown-haired girl looks at me , her eyes are red from crying. Shes pale and thin and other face is mostly hidden by her messy shoulder length hair.

The nurse walks over to the kitchenette and the brown-haired girl moves her mouth and with a low whisper she says, "I think they put something in the food." I watch her stir around the bowl of cereal she has been given but does not eat it. When a bowl is placed in front of me, I do the same, not that I'd eat it anyway.

"What are you in for?" She whispers after some minutes of silence, in a British accent.

I frown, I don't like the fact that nurses are watching us like hawks. I like the fact this girl doesn't look me in the eye, she doesn't expect an answer. She returns to her bowl, looking regretful.

"PTSD," I answer her, "I think." She looks up in surprise.

"Oh," she says, I don't want to return the question, Fischer said she was crazy but Hermione got hysterical when Lucy called her a lunatic.

"Are you British?" I ask after some more minutes.

She nods. "I'm from London."

"So why are you here , in America?" I ask.

"My relatives wanted to send me as far away as possible. They said I was crazy, they wouldn't believe me about where I spent the past seven years, nobody does."

" Even your parents?"

"My parents are dead." She whispers. She looks up at the nurses. "I can't eat anything else, thank you."

She stands up and walks over to the bookshelves. I stay at the table, wondering why she was sent here, and what she had spent the past seven years doing. She was young, she couldn't be older than eighteen.

"Elizabeth, Fischer wants you," Lucy announces loudly as she walks into the kitchen. She sits at the table opposite me, "so what's your story kid? You're like twelve."

I'm sixteen but I don't tell her that. "You must be pretty crazy to end up here." She smirks eyeing Hermione.

I stand up from the table, I'm not comfortable with her being so close to me. "Hey, I'm not the one you need to be afraid of," she laughs,she throws a glance at Hermione who frowns. "But don't get on her bad side now you hear? She's a witch. She'll use her magic on you!" Lucy giggles.

"Lucy!" The other nurse snaps. "do you need to go back to Dr. Fischer?"

"Why can't you nurses mind your own goddamn business?" Lucy spits and leaves. The nurses walks briskly after her.

Hermione walks towards me, looking me in the eye this time. "I'm not as crazy as they say I am."

"Was she telling the truth? About magic?"

She nods her head and I widen my eyes in disbelief but she seems so sincere about it.

"I wouldn't expect you to believe me," she says coldly. "You'll probably just laugh about it with the others."

"No I won't!" I say angrily. "Don't judge me so easily, I can think for myself."

"Sorry, I'm so used to being taunted."

"So where were you, the past seven years?" I ask quietly.

She sighs. "I was in another world, a magic world, attending school. My parents knew about it, I came home every summer. But the last time I returned home I had been away for over a year, I came home and my parents were dead, my relatives were questioning me asking me where I had gone, I tried to explain but they wouldn't believe me."

I look at her in disbelief and amazement, I know I shouldn't believe this but she's so serious about it.

"So why didn't you go back? To that world?"

"I tried, but I wasn't able to, the ways I used to get there, they just didn't work anymore, and my friends didn't come to help me, not even my boyfriend," she whispers in a sad, tearful voice. "I don't expect you to believe any of this, nobody ever does or ever will, I'm alone in this world, it's funny to think I once called it my home."

She sighs sadly and turns her eyes to the barred window and blankly stares at it for some silent moments, she slowly looks up at the loudly ticking clock and frowns. "I have to go,"she whispers, she looks afraid now and nervous. "Be careful around the others, especially Lucy, she'll make you feel horrible about yourself if you let her."

* * *

Hermione leaves to go to her session with Dr. Fischer, as she does , I am joined in the communal area by Katrina Lucy and Corrie who tried to ask me questions I refused to answer. "Come on we don't bite," Lucy teases.

"We're all for a reason," Katrina adds.

"Yeah like Katrina here tried to run in front of a bus," Lucy says, Katrina scowls back at her. I ignore them and walk to the other side of the room.

I watch Lucy take out a bottle of red nail polish and paint her toenails. "So we heard you were talking to Hermione." She smirks, paying careful attention to her feet and not to me. I don't know if she's looking for a reply but I don't give her one anyway.

"Don't believe anything she tells you!" Katrina whispers. "Fischer thinks she's totally crazy, a complete lunatic! You should stay away from her or Fischer will hate you too."

"She's not stupid Katrina," Lucy rolls her eyes. "Of course she's not going to believe her, even if she is twelve. Listen kid, some people will never get out of here, that British girl is one of them. She is the craziest person in this hospital, and heck there is a girl on the fifth floor who killed her parents! Don't let her convince you otherwise or Fischer will think you're just as crazy, and you don't want to be labelled as crazy as a girl who believes in magic."

I'm unsure about what to think about it all, it is understandable that she's been announced insane but she seems so sure of her past and of this whole magical school, but she's by far the sweetest person I've met in the hospital, she hasn't asked me why I'm here and she didn't speak to me like I am a kid or like I'm crazy. Apart from the magic thing, she's not so bad. Maybe she is crazy, but who here isn't? Why is she judged by everyone?


	4. The Group Session

We have a group session at midday. Dr. Fischer tells us to have a seat, I already feel uneasy. There's eight of us in the room, the five inmates plus Fischer and her two nurses. It feels crowded or like a confrontation. I notice how far away Hermione sits from the others, both nurses at her side, she looks distressed since she returned from Fischer's office.

"Welcome girls," Dr. Fischer. "Since it's Lyza's first day, we're going to have a positive discussion topic today."

"That would be a change," Lucy retorts. I hear a scribble of a pen and I notice that one of the nurses has a clipboard.

"Lucy, why don't you start then?" Fischer suggests. "We're going to start off with an easy topic and talk about likes and dislikes first."

"I like fire," she smirks, I watch Katrina chuckle beside her but Fischer frowns. Lucy continues, "I dislike people and food. I dislike happiness and sunshine."

There's more scribbling which Fischer tries to pretend is non existent and moves on to Katrina. Katrina clears her throat, "I like knowing I have one person I can trust," she says glancing at Lucy. "I dislike people and music, sometimes I really dislike oxygen but most of all I dislike nurses writing down everything I say." She says, raising her voice on the last sentence, Lucy lets out a laugh and to my surprise I even see Corrie's lips part into a soft small smile. Fischer is not impressed.

"Corrie?" Fischer says bluntly. The black haired girl doesn't even look up. "Well? What do you like or dislike? Come on, don't be shy." Corrie doesn't move.

"Leave her alone, we all know she dislikes speaking," Lucy argues.

"Lucy, you are not Corrie's voice, she must learn how to become comfortable with communication. Corrie, we'll come back to you after Lyza."

I feel immediatley uncomfortable at the sound of my name. I feel everyone's eyes on me.

"Lyza?"

"I like people who are honest," I say. "I don't like my mother, or people who disrespect others."

"Thank you for your input," Fischer smiles amid the scribbling in the background. "Well Corrie?"

"Back off Fischer!" Lucy snaps. "Leave her alone."

"Lucy, don't raise your voice," Fischer warns. "Fine Hermione, what about you?"

Hermione looks to the floor. "I don't like this hospital, or anyone in this world."

"What about your likes?"

"I like being listened to," She replies in a bitter tone, but I feel as if she's talking to me. "I like magic. And my old life."

"Hermione," Fischer frowns. "Remember what we discussed this morning."

"I like thinking about getting the hell out of here," Hermione raises her voices.

"Hermione you said you were going to try and stop this," the doctor says sharply. "You have to let it go! We're only trying to help you."

"Why is she even on this floor? She should be upstairs with the girl that talks to ghosts," Lucy mumbles loudly. "Although Hermione is on a whole different scale of crazy."

Before anyone knows it, Hermione hits Lucy. Lucy lets out a shriek and clutches both hands to her face. "It burns!" She wails. " Goddamnit she's set fire to my face! Someone help me!"

"Hermione!" Fischer shouts loudly, making Corrie cover her ears. "Physical aggression is completely against the rules here. You know what the punishment for this is! Elizabeth, will you please escort us? Martha, can you please get some ice for Lucy?"

"No please don't!" Hermione shrieks. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt her! Don't put me in the cell!"

I watch in shock as they pull her out of the room, I hear her crying all the way down the hall. "Where are they bringing her?" I whisper turning around to face the others. Lucy is silently crying at one end of the room while Katrina and Corrie sit side by side.

"To the cell," Katrina answers. "It's this tiny room with no windows and no handle on the door. There's no room to even sit down and it smells like death. It's where you go if you piss Fischer off, you start getting hallucinations after two hours."

"Maybe it will have the reverse effect on her, maybe she'll stop hallucinating," Lucy says amid her sobs.

I look at them in disbelief, surely they're exaggerating, they couldn't send a patient somewhere so awful. Not Fischer.

Lucy continues to whine. Martha offers her ice but Lucy pushes it away.

"Holy shit that bitch can slap." Lucy curses as she takes her hand away from her face and I hear the others gasp.

I look at her in utter shock, a red burn has been left on her right cheek. It's bleeding and horrible to look at, Martha the nurse looks at her in disgusting I've seen burns like that before on TV. That mark can't be the result of a normal slap, that burn is a result of fire, but the question is, how is this possible?

"What are you all staring at?" Lucy asks. She glares at me, "Well?"

"Luce,"Katrina whispers. "Look at your face."

Lucy walks over to the tv and crouches down to check her reflection in the blank dark screen. I watch her as her eyes widen in horror and she opens her mouth. I wait for the scream to come but it doesn't.

"Fuck," Lucy mutters, her face pale. She turns back to the nurse, "My fucking face, look at it!"

"Come on," Martha sighs. "We'll bring you to the doctor. You three, stay here until Dr. Fischer get's back."

Lucy puts her hand back to her face as the nurse leads her out. Silence falls upon the room as I'm left worrying to myself, wondering what secrets this hospital beholds, and what's more, how Hermione managed to set fire to Lucy's face with her hand.


	5. Hermione's story

Dr. Fischer arrives back some minutes later witht eh other nurse in her shadow. "Where's Lucy and Martha?" She asks in an almost demanding tone. Her eyes dart from Katrina to Corrie for an answer.

Both girls look to the floor simultaneously. "Well?" Fischer raises her voice.

"They went to the doctor to fix up Lucy's face," Katrina mumbles, with a hint of a tremble in her voice.

"The doctor!" Fischer's eyes flare as she impatiently pulls out her cell phone and punches in a number.

"Martha! It's me,- yes I just got back, I was told- tell me what happened!" She demands of the receiver, she walks out of the room with her phone but we can faintly hear her from the hallway, speaking in a distressed, angry voice that makes me uncomfortable and nervous.

"Are you serious?- It can't be that bad, put me onto the doctor- fine, I'll be down in a minute."

We can hear her sigh drastically as she puts her phone away and her annoyance is given away by the hard sound made by her high heels as she storms back into the room. "I need to go downstairs to the doctor, for the mean time you will all go to your rooms and stay there until I come back! Do you understand?" She says with teeth gritted but then our eyes make contact and her face completely softens. "I'm sorry Lyza, it's been such a crazy day, we can talk as soon as we get back. But for now, I'm going to allow Elizabeth to take you to your room and you can have a rest. I'll see you later."

The other nurse beckons for us to follow her down the hallway to our rooms and Fischer walks briskly away, I've seen a different side to her and it's not one I like, I hope she's just in a rare bad mood.

Elizabeth, the sour faced nurse, one by one opens the doors to each of our bedrooms. I watch her lead Katrina and Corrie into their bedrooms then slam the door safely behind her so that they're locked in. I sigh as we reach my door and I slowly shuffle in, she slams the door behind me and I know that I'm trapped here until Lucy's face is bandaged up and they impose an inquisition on Hermione.

I thought I'd be happy to get some space but now I just feel imprisoned. I need my own space but now I'm treated like a prisoner for someone else's mistake. I want to run away even knowing that I have nowhere to run to, I'm not wanted at home, I just want to find a place where I can be free from everything and everyone, but this locked door is a barrier. Fischer's changing attitude has me on edge and I can feel anger building up inside my veins, it spreads to my palms and my hand automatically reach for the first thing it can grab, which just so happens to be the plastic jug of flowers on the window sill.

With a great force, I throw it randomly and hear it hit off the hard floor. "I hate it here," I scream,frustrated . "I hate this forsaken building and every last person in it!"

I look at the shattered jug on the floor, my head begins to flow with images of the cracked window glass from the car that ended my father's life. His blood staining the shards and the car bonnet, and running across the dirty road, while his shocked eyes remained wide open.

It's too much, I can't get rid of the picture, it's like I'm there again. There's nothing else to do but scream for a saviour to get me out of here, but I'm not so sure that my mom will come to my rescue this time.

"Help!" I scream continuously but I can't escape, I'm trapped in the past. I can feel sweat pouring from my forehead until a cold palm is placed over it and soft calming whispers are blown into my ear.

I freeze suddenly as I snap out of it, I didn't hear the nurse come in.

"Lyza, it's ok," the voice whispers but it's not a nurse. I look up.

"Hermione?" I gasp. "What are you doing here? How did you get out?"

"I really am running out of explanations," she sighs frustratedly.

"magic,"I breathe and she nods ashamed. I immediately break eye contact.

"It's complicated and bizarre I know, but I don't want to lie to you Lyza," she says. "But back to you, are you ok? I heard you screaming, what happened?"

I edge away from her touch. "I just couldn't get rid of the pictures," I say.

"Are they gone?"she asks.

"they are now, you distracted me," I admit.

"Lyza, Are you afraid of me?" Hermione whispers nervously.

"Maybe," I confess.

"Lyza, I promise I didn't mean to do that, stuff like that just happens some times when I'm angry, I never meant to hurt Lucy. Is she ok?"

"She had to go to the doctor, Dr. Fischer is really mad," I tell her. I hear Hermione gasp as she buries her head in her knees.

"They're never going to let me out of here," she whispers. " I'm stuck here for eternity. My friends have forgotten me, I have nobody left who cares."

"Hermione, can you tell me more about it, the magic I mean," I say.

She looks at me surprised. "You really want to know?" I answer with a nod.

"Ok I shouldn't tell you any of this, but it seems like nobody in the other world cares about me and I need at least one person that I convince that I'm not crazy. Just don't repeat any of it, they'll think you're as crazy as they claim me to be."

"Okay," I whisper. "I won't say anything."

"It's a world more than you could ever imagine, there's creatures that only exist in myths here. Flying cars, invisibility cloaks, time turners, pictures that move, mail that reads itself!" she smiles sadly, her mind seems to be in another place. " I went to a school, I started when I was 11, this school taught us witchcraft and wizardry. Most of the kids were born wizards but the. There were some, like me, who they found living in the "muggle world", we were seen as less equal to the pure blood and half blood wizards for a long time but that's changing. It's a world like you'd never imagine, in school we learned different charms and spells, how to brew potions, how to use brooms and wands, I found all these abilities I never would have dreamt of having. I made the best and only true friends I ever had, one of them became my boyfriends, Ron, we left school in year 7 , Ron, Harry and I, we had to destroy one of the most wicked wizards of all time," she rambles on. At this point I'm raising my eyebrows.

"I know it sounds crazy!" She says. "Not all magic is good, as you have seen with Lucy's face, but this wizard used some of the darkest magic ever known. He wanted to destroy witches and wizard like me, and make sure no more of us entered the magical world, among other things. I had to wipe my parents memory so they wouldn't be endangered or tortured to reveal my whereabouts. I came back to fix their memories but they were already dead, so now you see nobody believes me, my parents knew but they're dead, there is nobody able or willing to prove that I'm not crazy."

"I think I believe you," I mumble, despite how crazy it sounds, " the magic bit anyway, whatever you did to Lucy's face was not normal and I don't know how you made it out of the cell Katrina told me about or how you got inside this door. You're not as crazy as they say."

Hermione smiles with watering eyes. "Lyza, you've no idea how long I've waited to hear that, thank you."

"you should go, before the nurses come back," I whisper.

She mods understandingly. "Please take care of yourself Lyza, I'll see you soon, I won't intrude on your room again but please watch out for Fischer, she's not all she seems."

And with that she's gone.


End file.
